


Flamingo Socks

by yookihyunnieX



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and only Fluff, Gen, M/M, Young Love, two cuties who just really love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 12:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18620242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yookihyunnieX/pseuds/yookihyunnieX
Summary: Hansol didn't use the word "love" lightly, tossing it around the way everyone else in his generation seems to enjoy. After meeting Seungkwan, and learning more about him, Hansol realized love was, finally, the best word to describe how he felt. And once he admitted that he loved Seungkwan, he continued to love more about him.





	Flamingo Socks

Loving Seungkwan was simultaneously the easiest and most terrifying thing that Hansol had ever done. 

There were things about him that Hansol didn't know had the potential to be loved before he saw them in Seungkwan. And, somehow, Seungkwan found just as many things to love about him. Small and quirky habits that Hansol was only slightly aware he even did.

Seungkwan had a taste for plain vanilla ice cream, which blew Hansol's mind. Plain?  _ Vanilla _ ice cream?

“Boo, don't you want sprinkles or something?” Hansol asked on their first date.

“Of course not! I want to taste the vanilla.”

Insanity.

But, god  _ damn it _ , the smile on Seungkwan's face after that first lick shot a painful yearning through Hansol's chest. He looked so  _ content _ and Hansol wondered, for the first time, if he was missing out on the sweet simplicity of vanilla ice cream.

Now, it's his favorite flavor.

And, as it turned out, there was more he'd been missing out on.

On the afternoon of a random Tuesday, Hansol's phone buzzed, “favOriTe” blaring through the speaker, muffled by the laundry pile at the foot of his bed. He scrambled to reach it, knowing the tone was set for Seungkwan.

“Hey, Boo,” he answered.

“Hey!” Seungkwan replied, yelling over a cacophony of bass and high vocals. “Are you home?”

“Yeah, why?” 

“Good, I'm pulling into your driveway!” Seungkwan exclaimed. “Hurry up.” And he hung up the phone.

“Where are we going?” Hansol yelled over HyunA's “Red” as he pulled on his seatbelt.

“We're going to do one of my favorite things,” Seungkwan grinned.

_ Intriguing. _

Hansol didn't know what he expected. But it  _ definitely _ wasn't a car wash, which is  _ exactly _ where he found himself maybe eight minutes later.

Seungkwan was selecting his wash at the touchscreen kiosk in the drive-thru and answering to absolutely none of Hansol's confused protests. When he pulled up to the entrance of the automatic car wash, he finally turned to Hansol and spoke.

“Don't speak as we go through. Listen to the song, look around, and  _ feel it. _ ”

Seungkwan's expression was earnest, eyes excited and almost pleading at the same time.

Hansol shut his mouth and nodded. 

Seungkwan gave him a small smile, then swiped open his phone to select a song. Hansol didn't try to see what it was. He wanted to be surprised.

His boyfriend set his phone back down and pulled onto the belt, locking his tires in place. The advertisement finished just as the car began getting pulled.

The synthpop beats of “Young Blood” began to pulse through the vehicle.

_ I didn't know he liked The Naked and Famous _ , Hansol smiled to himself.

The electro vibe of the song made the car wash a magical experience, with the red, blue, and green changing lights of the wash dancing to the buzzing guitar riff. 

Hansol had a tendency to sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic. But when the soap blocked his view at the windows, he didn't feel afraid or confined. He felt comfortable. Free. Being here, with Seungkwan.

He turned to his boyfriend, whose eyes were sparkling as the bridge of the song played, rinse cycle raining gently down on the windshield. And he somehow loved him more than he had before.

Every mensiversary the two celebrated, Hansol learned how to love Seungkwan more and more. 

“Mensiversary” is what Hansol insisted each monthly celebration of their relationship be called.

“Happy mensiversary!” Hansol had texted his partner that morning, with a follow up explanation. “Anniversary definitionally means a year commemoration. Mensiversary would be the month equivalent, I think.”

And Seungkwan happily replied, “Happy mensiversary then!!!” with a series of emojis with meanings Hansol only halfway pretended to understand. 

He preferred to express himself with words, rather than submit to the social connotations behind cartoon faces and shapes. But when Seungkwan sent him handful of smiles, kisses, and hearts, he couldn't help but grin to himself.   


And when they met that evening, Seungkwan surprised him with a bag of blue M&M's and a handful of Twix. Hansol's sweet tooth was no secret, but…”Why the bag of just blue ones?” Hansol asked, perplexed.

“Because, silly!” he chuckled. “Every time we share M&M's, you always pull out all the blue ones and eat them first. I figured it made more sense to order you a bag of  _ only _ blue so you can enjoy them all!” 

Hansol had done that by habit since he declared his favorite color as blue in the third grade, but he didn't know Seungkwan had caught on.

“It's perfect, thank you,” Hansol declared with a huge smile.

That was before Hansol knew what love was.

He knew he cared very deeply for Seungkwan, and that he felt happier with him than he felt without him. “Love” was a word he hadn't really used before, and the lack of necessity meant he hadn't really broken it down and defined it. 

Yet.

Seungkwan was truly something to behold. He was so charismatic, and able to read and relate to people with an ease Hansol had never before seen. Seungkwan appeared to be comfortable in every social situation, matching the energy of those around him at an astonishing speed. 

He displayed a childlike awe and enthusiasm for things that Hansol hadn't considered being excited over even once in his life. Seungkwan greeted dogs on the street like they were lifelong buddies, reuniting after months apart. And he'd text Hansol with at least seven exclamation points upon the discovery that his calligraphy markers were surprisingly dual-ended. If there were sunflowers on the side of the road, Seungkwan would make them stop the car so he could take a picture. “I absolutely  _ adore _ sunflowers!” he’d say each time, beaming.

Hansol didn't claim to be a particularly emotional person. Quite the opposite, actually.

But the passion Seungkwan felt was astounding in a way that caused Hansol to almost envy that level of emotion. However, in addition to envy, Hansol felt inspiration. He began allowing himself to feel excitement over little things, one at a time.

“Seungkwan! You'll never guess what I just did!” Hansol exclaimed through the phone.

“Did you get that internship?” Seungkwan replied.

“What? No. Well, I don't know, they didn't contact me yet.”

“Okay, let me think.”

“You'll never guess, so I'm going to tell you! I beat odogaron!” 

“You did  _ what _ now?”

Hansol knew Seungkwan wasn't a gamer, but, come _ on _ . Hansol had been going against this monster on high rank for  _ weeks _ . Though, he knew Seungkwan's memory wasn't the best for things like this.

“You know, on Monster Hunter World, that lizard dog monster with crazy armor and a spiked tail that moves insanely fast?”

“ _ Ohh _ , yeah, I remember you showing me,” Seungkwan said in recollection.

“Yeah! I finally beat it on high rank!”

“Oh,  _ hell _ yeah. That's awesome! Congrats!”

And then, for Hansol's next birthday, Seungkwan got him a new game.

“I had to choose between a few things, so I really hope I got the right one,” Seungkwan said bashfully.

Hansol peeled back the wrapping paper and saw Assassin's Creed Origins.

“Seungkwan, I love you. Thank you.” And he kissed his boyfriend on the forehead.

Love, Hansol decided, could not be defined in full. Love is something you feel when you enjoy being around someone. And the personal growth that comes through spending time with them. The knowledge that this person makes you  _ better _ . Happier. With the hope and confirmation that the other person feels the same.

He decided that he loved Seungkwan, even if his love wasn’t fully defined. But he thought that, through Seungkwan, he could learn more about love and  _ how _ to love.

Before Hansol told Seungkwan he loved him for the first time, he’d been thinking about it for quite a while. He wanted to be  _ sure _ . Finally, he realized that this was as sure as he could be and that Seungkwan needed to know how he felt.

They were watching a movie they’d been recommended and were able to rent. It was  _ awful _ . Truly horrendous. But they were committed to watching it anyway. They’d gotten some candy and Seungkwan grabbed the bag of sour skittles from Hansol at the last second. He pulled out the very last skittle, a red one, and was  _ ecstatic _ that he was lucky enough to get red.

“I love you,” Hansol said as Seungkwan popped the skittle into his mouth.

“What?” Seungkwan asked. Hansol wasn’t sure if he simply hadn’t heard or if he didn’t believe him. Seungkwan knew about Hansol’s thoughts about not telling someone you love them unless you mean it, and that you can’t  _ mean it _ unless you know how to  _ define it. _

“I love you,” he repeated.

He was wrapped into a hug before he could blink.

After a moment, Seungkwan whispered, “I love you, too.”

Later, Seungkwan wondered, “Why did you choose to say it then?” to which Hansol shrugged and replied, “I felt it then, so I chose to say it then.”

Once Hansol learned that he loved Seungkwan, loving him was so incredibly easy. Every little thing Seungkwan did made Hansol fall ever more in love with him.

If Seungkwan didn’t know something, he’d admit it and ask for more information. Hansol loved his humility and his craving of understanding. 

If Seungkwan was upset about something, he’d talk it through with Hansol, and did the same if there was something bothering Hansol. He loved Seungkwan’s ability to advocate for himself and to respond to feedback. He loved his ability to grow. 

If Hansol wanted a night in to read, or a night with his friends without Seungkwan, there was no need to share every detail about what he’d be doing with whom. Hansol loved the trust and freedom of a healthy relationship. 

If Hansol wasn’t in the mood to cuddle or stay the night, Seungkwan would say, “okay” and “I love you” and “another time, then”. Hansol loved that Seungkwan respected his boundaries.

There were things that frustrated him about Seungkwan, absolutely. They got annoyed with one another, and occasionally snapped if they were irritable. But they always talked it through and walked away from the conversation with a bit more knowledge about one another.

Sometimes Hansol was surprised about how little it turned out that he actually knew about Seungkwan, but he enjoyed learning those things as he went. 

Like the way he only  _ double  _ knotted his shoes, never single. And how he made little whiny sounds like a puppy when he was trying to fall asleep, but couldn't. Or how he was very particular about his socks. 

Seungkwan had different socks for different occasions, and for different “feelings.”

Hansol only wore socks that reached mid-calf, and he liked to try fun designs. Seungkwan, though, had crew socks, socks with heel protectors, socks that gave his arches “a good squeeze”, and some mid-calf height socks as well. 

If Seungkwan asked for Hansol to grab a pair of socks from his drawer, Hansol always made sure to clarify what  _ type _ because he’d already made  _ that _ mistake once.

“Not all socks are created equal, Hansol,” he’d said.

Seungkwan’s favorite pair of socks were light blue with pink flamingos. They were mid-calf in length and had a pink band at the top. Hansol had the exact same pair. 

They got them walking around the mall one day when they wandered into a random store. Hansol and Seungkwan both thought they were funny, and there was a “buy one, get one half off” deal, so they thought it would be silly not to get them.

That was the same day they rented that awful movie. 

The same day Hansol told Seungkwan “I love you” for the very first time.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this was written a little bit differently than my regular stuff, but I hope you still enjoyed it ^^  
> This has little shout outs here and there to some really important people to me, whom I love. Yes, love.   
> I hope that my friends know how important they are to me<3
> 
> My beta was my good friend, Nini / @megaotaku98 on ao3
> 
> Thank you for reading <3


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